To know more about the location
of the fossils,
You can also learn
about the other hominids: For more images
of hominids,
Did you know? A.africanus means southern
ape of Africa. Incidentally,
it was also the first Australopithecine to be found . For more pictures,
Australopithecus africanus
A. africanus existed between 3
and 2 million years ago. It is similar to afarensis, and was also
bipedal, but body size was slightly greater. Brain size may also have been slightly
larger, ranging between 420 and 500 cc.
This is a little larger than chimp brains (despite a similar body size), but
still not advanced in the areas necessary for speech. The back teeth were a
little bigger than in afarensis. Although the teeth and jaws of africanus are
much larger than those of humans, they are far more similar to human teeth than
to those of apes (Johanson and Edey 1981).
Image caption: The Taung child skull with fossilized brain
Australopithecus afarensis and africanus are known as gracile australopithecines, because of their relatively lighter build, especially in the skull and teeth.
Gracile means "slender", and in paleoanthropology is used as an antonym to "robust".
Despite this, they were still more robust than modern humans are. It was found in South Africa (Taung, Sterkfontein and others)
Dentition much more similar to humans than to ancestral Miocene apes because the canines were reduced and had a more parabolic jaw shape. Dentition most likely reflects an omnivorous diet without specialization in any one type of food resource.
"Taung
Child", Australopithecus africanus
It was discovered by Raymond Dart in 1924 at Taung in South Africa (Dart 1925).The find consisted of a full face, teeth and jaws, and an endocranial cast of the brain.
It is between 2 and 3 million years old, but there is a fair bit of uncertainity about it. The teeth of this skull showed it to be from an infant about 5 or 6 years old . The brain size was 410 cc, and would have been around 440 cc if the child had grown into an adult.
The large rounded brain, canine teeth which were small and not apelike, and the position of the foramen magnum(the hole in the skull through which the spinal cord passes ) convinced Dart that this was a bipedal human ancestor, which he named Australopithecus africanus (African southern ape).Although the discovery became famous, Dart's interpretation was rejected by the scientific community until the mid-1940's, following the discovery of other similar fossils.
It was discovered by Robert Broom in 1936 at Sterkfontein in South Africa (Broom 1936).It was the second australopithecine to be found. It consisted of parts of the face, upper jaw and braincase.
It was discovered by Robert Broom in 1947 at Sterkfontein in South Africa. It is a very well preserved cranium of an adult. It has usually been thought to be female, but there have been recent claims that it could be male. It is the best specimen of africanus. The brain size is about 485 cc.
It was discovered by Robert Broom and J.T. Robinson in 1947 at Sterkfontein (Broom and Robinson 1947). The estimated age is about 2.5 million years. This find consisted of a nearly complete vertebral column, pelvis, some rib fragments, and part of a femur of a very small adult female. The pelvis is far more human than apelike, and is strong evidence that africanus was bipedal (Brace et al. 1979), although it may not have had the strong striding gait of modern humans (Burenhult 1993).
